Russia hit Ukrainian port infrastructure and grain storage facilities in an overnight drone strike in the grain-exporting Ismail region, Ukrainian officials said today.

Two injured and material damage

Oleh Kiper, governor of the Odessa region, in the southern part of the country that also includes the Danube river ports of Ismail and Reni, said a border control building, storage facilities and more than 30 trucks and cars were damaged and two people were injured. .

The Ukrainian military said operations at an international checkpoint were suspended and vehicular traffic was temporarily diverted. Ukraine’s border service later said the checkpoint is Orlifka, on the border with Romania.

The two-hour attack was the latest strike against Ukrainian grain facilities and ports since July, when Russia pulled out of a grain deal that had guaranteed the safe passage of Ukrainian cargoes across the Black Sea in a bid to tackle a global food crisis. .

Ukraine, a major global grain producer and exporter, has since increased exports via the Danube.

“The enemy targeted the port and the Danube border infrastructure,” the attorney general’s office said, releasing photos of damaged grain silos and burning trucks. “Two truck drivers were injured as a result of the attack. Granaries, administrative buildings and trucks were destroyed.”

The military said 26 of 38 Iranian-made drones launched by Russia against Ukraine overnight were shot down.

Attacks in other areas as well

In addition, he said that apart from the Odesa region, Mykolife, Kherson and Kirovohrad regions were under fire.

A Russian missile strike also damaged a local business in the town of Kriviy Rih, its mayor said, and the governor of Cherkasy region said unspecified infrastructure facilities were hit there.

There were no reports of deaths in the attacks, the latest in a series of strikes by Russia since it launched its invasion of Ukraine 19 months ago.

Kiev has responded with an increasing number of attacks inside Russia and Russian-held Crimea and has stepped up its counteroffensive, claiming it is gradually gaining ground in Russian-held areas of southern and eastern Ukraine.

The governor of Russia’s Kursk region said there was a power outage in seven settlements in the region in the latest reported attack. The Russian Defense Ministry reported that a drone was destroyed over the Kursk region at around 5:30 am (local and Greek time). Reuters was unable to independently cross-reference either side’s reports.